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Enterprise Search in Windows 7 Overview

In this article

Search enhancements in Windows 7 make finding information easier

Enterprise users need to access data from a variety of sources in their daily tasks. With Windows Vista®, Microsoft® introduced advanced desktop search technology, enabling users to instantly find information on their computers. With Microsoft Office® SharePoint® Server 2007 and the Enterprise Search family of products, Microsoft delivered highly secure, manageable, server-based search. Windows® 7 brings these experiences together and provides users with an improved and seamless search experience across local and networked corporate data directly within Windows Explorer.

More intuitive ways to find and organize information

Advancements to the Windows 7 user interface (UI) make it easier for users to quickly find what they are looking for. Recommendations based on recent searches help you narrow results to the information that matters the most to you. Libraries are a new way of accessing documents, presentations, or any type of file that might be located in different folders, on different hard drives, or even on different computers—in a single view. Windows 7 creates several default Libraries for items such as Documents and Pictures, allowing you to store and browse files in an optimal way. You can also create custom Libraries. For example, Libraries can be created per project to provide one entry point under which you can organize, access and search files spread across multiple locations.

Search a variety of locations from a unified interface with Search Federation

Windows 7 enables users to search remote document repositories, SharePoint sites, and Web applications as easily as they search their desktops—through the familiar Windows interface. Windows 7 Search Federation uses an existing public standard named OpenSearch. Users can select which sites are available for searching, or IT can populate the list by Group Policy. Federated search results are presented in Windows explorer much like local files, with rich views, file details, and previews.

Flexible search scopes

Making it easy to discover and search intranet sites can help organizations maximize their return on these investments. With Enterprise Search scopes in Windows 7, IT administrators can populate links on the Start menu or in Windows Explorer. These links simplify access to the most appropriate, complete, authoritative data sources on the network. This makes content on intranet portals more discoverable and accessible. IT administrators can deploy Enterprise Search scopes on users' machines using Group Policy.